But residents will see an additional $1.75 tacked onto their phone bills next year.

The San Jose City Council voted 10-1 on June 15 to approve the budget outlined by Mayor Ron Gonzales in his June budget message.

The budget avoids many of the cuts most feared by taxpayers. "The single greatest item I got the most response from was park ... bathrooms. So you're a hero," Councilman Forrest Williams told the mayor during the meeting.

The sole voice of dissension came from District 4 representative Chuck Reed, who said the new phone bill fee was really a new tax in disguise. "Even though we call it a fee, it's a tax," Reed said. "It should go to the voters. It's a creative and novel idea, but it's untested in the courts. I think it won't survive a legal challenge."

The council held two public hearings over the previous month about the budget, leading to some very late nights for the politicians. So the mayor seemed thrilled that no one from the public wanted to talk about the budget during the June 15 meeting. "Not a single card from the public to discuss the budget! We must be doing something right. Hopefully that will be true for the council, too," he said.

But five minutes later the mayor's bubble burst when someone did step up to speak. "We do have a card from the public! I was wrong. Now I know what it feels like to be the pitcher who loses at the bottom of the ninth inning," Gonzales said with a sigh.

As a result of the new budget, San Jose residents will see some changes in city services. Park maintenance and trash pickup will happen less frequently.

The city council still has several other issues to kick around before taking its July vacation.

During the regular council meeting on June 22, the council voted to reject all bids on the proposed convention center "tent," despite already spending $220,000 on the project.

According to the redevelopment agency, the two bids received were each at least 150 percent greater than the city engineer's estimate of $3.1 million. Scrapping the bids means the "tent" may not be finished before July 2005, as originally planned.

Gonzales has campaigned for the tent by claiming the city has lost at least 40 conventions because its convention center isn't big enough, citing Apple, Intel and Cisco as examples of companies that chose other venues.

But Intel representative Tracy Koon and Cisco spokeswoman Heather Goodwin have told the Almaden Resident that the center's size doesn't matter. Apple declined to comment.

The next major piece of legislation scheduled to come before the council is a new lobbyist ordinance. The city council's ethics task force—comprised of Council members Ken Yeager, Pat Dando, Cindy Chavez and Reed—has been hammering away at the new ordinance and hopes to have a final draft approved before the council takes its July vacation.

Judging by the latest revisions, defining what a lobbyist is seems to be the hardest part. The single definition in the first draft of the ordinance has been split into three categories, which are based on how many hours and for whom a consultant lobbies.

The council could just use the Internal Revenue Service's definition of a lobbyist—anyone who meets with an elected official to talk about a specific piece of legislation. But Reed called that definition too broad and too narrow.

"I have said that anyone who knocks on my door is a lobbyist," Reed said. "It would require too many people to register and pay a fee before they could talk to council members. For example, mom and pop businesses should not have to do that just to complain about the building department. I think we have to draw our line in a way to cover the professionals. Some of the professionals represent themselves and are not working on behalf of an organization. My primary concern is following the money."

Recent allegations made by local newspapers against Councilman Terry Gregory and Mayor Ron Gonzales pinned the need for lobbyist regulation under a spotlight.

Both officials were accused of accepting gifts in excess of San Jose's $15 limit on gifts and state-mandated disclosures of gifts valued at more than $50.

Developer Dennis Fong allegedly bought Gregory expensive wine and meals. Gonzales allegedly let lobbyists buy rounds of golf at the exclusive Corde Valle country club. Gonzales told the media that he'd write a $275 check to repay the lobbyists.